


Trials in the Dark

by Red_Tigress



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Campaign 2 (Critical Role), Gen, Hurt Fjord, Hurt Nott, Hurt/Comfort, The others are in this but briefly, Whump, Written Pre E20, Written post E19, the mighty nein - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-24
Updated: 2018-05-24
Packaged: 2019-05-13 07:39:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14744684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Tigress/pseuds/Red_Tigress
Summary: When Fjord and Nott get separated from the group, there's some things they need to work out if they want to survive.





	Trials in the Dark

Nott backed up against the wall of the underground room, reloading another bolt into her crossbow. Fjord was a few feet away from her, and she watched as he hurled hexes with the hilt of his sword towards the two wizards ahead. Caleb was a few feet beyond him, ducking behind a rock and mumbling frantically. She couldn’t see the others.

“Caleb!” Fjord shouted. “We need your help!” The half-orc ducked out of the way.

Nott’s first instinct was to tell him to layoff, but she knew he was right. Caleb was one of the more powerful among them when he was focused. She dashed between Fjord and the rock. She heard Mollymauk shout from somewhere across the temple, as one of the wizards shifted his hands a blast of dark purple energy shot at a target she couldn’t see.

Caleb peeked over the top of one of the boulders, and she could see the gem slowly rotating in his hands as he mumbled the incantation she knew was firebolt. One of the wizards turned towards the three of them, and noticed Caleb preparing the spell. He lifted his arm.

Nott didn’t think, she just fired. Two of her crossbolts hit him right in the shoulder and arm, and he growled, turning towards her. He lifted his other hand, and before she could react, a light blue light was racing towards her, cackling menacingly.

A huge form covered her own. And there was a grunt as she felt the impact of whatever the wizard had done hit the other person. There was a burst of cold as frost shot outwards, and she realized that it was Fjord who had dove on top of her to shield her with his armor. There was another burst of light, and then everything went dark.

Nott blinked her eyes, adjusting to the total darkness that had replaced the flickering torchlight. It was quiet, except for dripping water somewhere, and Fjord’s heavy breathing on top of her.

“Get off, get off!” she scrabbled out from under him. As soon as she was clear, she leapt to her feet and swirled around to face him. She could just make out his outline in the dark. “What happened? What did you do?”

Fjord coughed once, pulling himself onto his hands and knees. “You’re welcome,” he growled, voice raspy.

“I’m welcome?” she practically screeched. “The others are in danger, _Caleb_ is in danger, we have to get back there!” She began looking around for a door. She heard Fjord get to his feet as she darted past him, his movements still slightly sluggish.

“I think they used…a teleportation spell,” he rasped.

Her vision was becoming clearer now in the dark, and she could see a rocky, natural cavern that rose about forty feet above them. It was possible they were still in the same underground network, but the rooms they had been exploring had been carved and laid with stone work. This didn’t look like people had touched it.

She dropped to the floor, scanning around for other signs of a path or a trail. She crawled forward, towards the sound of the dripping water. It sounded far away, possibly from condensation dripping off a stalactite somewhere. She heard Fjord still breathing heavily somewhere behind her, but she said nothing. He could probably see almost as well as she could. She didn’t know why he had dove over her, but he wasn’t helping now. Well, she didn’t need it. Accuse her of being a baby-eater, would he? Try to hurt Caleb? He could stay back there, for all she cared. She moved forward, her eyes picking up something that resembled a footprint in the dust and stone beneath her.

“Hey,” she snapped. “You coming? We’re getting the others.” She got back on two feet and returned her crossbow to her back.

She heard an affirmative grunt, and Fjord’s footsteps started to shuffle behind her. It was _really_ loud.

She rolled her eyes and turned toward him. “Do you know-”

The rest of the insult died on her lips as she took sight of Fjord for the first time since her eyes had fully adjusted. Fjord was leaning heavily on the cave wall. She could see rivulets of sweat running down his hairline. His arm that normally held his sword was dangling at his side. There was a huge, dark black burn mark across the armor on the that arm, and what she thought was a dark, angry red where there was exposed skin on his shoulder and neck. A number of large, angry welts were also visible around the wound. He looked at her through heavily-lidded eyes, his mouth open slightly as he sucked in heavy breaths. “Fjord?” she whispered, suddenly afraid.

“I…I don’t…” His arm slid forward off the wall, and he collapsed unable to hold himself up.

“Fjord!” She sprinted over to his prone form. She lightly tapped his cheek. “Fjord! Fjord, wake up!” He moaned briefly, but didn’t open his eyes. He was still breathing heavily. She tried to push him onto his back, but he was too heavy. She crawled over him to his other side, pulling his shoulder with him as he went to turn him over. “Fjord! We need to get out of here, we need to get back to the others! They’re in danger! I can’t carry you!”

He moaned again, eyes opening slightly but not focusing. She started going through his packs, looking for potions, but all she found was a waterskin. She tore it from his belt, holding it gingerly to his lips. “You better drink this. Unless…you start coughing up your own.”

He didn’t seem to register her joke. She tricked some water into his mouth, and he sputtered weakly. He blinked again. “Nott?”

“Yes,” she sat back on her heels. “What’s wrong? You collapsed.”

“Why’sit…so dark?” he mumbled.

“We were teleported,” she said irritably. “We need to get back to the others. Can you stand?”

He seemed to think about it for a moment, then slowly nodded. He slowly turned himself onto his side, then sucked in a sharp breath. He didn’t continue moving.

“If you can’t…” she swallowed a lump in her throat. “If you can’t I’m…I’m just going to have to go on without you!”

“...kay,” Fjord mumbled.

“What?”

He let out a shuddering sigh. “Can’t…carry me. Have to help…the others.”

She bit her lip, not moving for a moment. Her eyes darted from Fjord, prone on the floor, to the path she thought led out.

She sighed and trudged to Fjord’s side. She ripped some fabric from her pants and began wrapping it around the welts on his exposed shoulder. He flinched sharply and sucked in a breath through his nose. “I didn’t ask you to do that,” she said quietly. “You don’t even like me. You think I eat babies.” She finished wrapping his shoulder. She wasn’t sure what it would do. Every time she brushed the wound Fjord flinched harshly. Whatever that spell had been it had to be incredibly painful.

Fjord turned himself over on his stomach and pushed himself onto his hands and knees. From there, he sat backwards, and began breathing harshly again with his eyes closed. But at least he was sitting up. He opened his eyes and looked out from under a heavy brow. “I like you, Nott.”

She found herself clenching her fists at her side. “Then why did you threaten Caleb? Why did you let Molly charm me? If you like me, you sure don’t show it!”

“Thought I just did,” he breathed warily. He stood up, wobbling slightly before leaning on the wall with his good arm again. He didn’t look at her, just started walking forward.

She jogged to his side, but he didn’t say anything or look at her. He was breathing heavily through his nose, biting his lip in pain. “You can rest, you know.”

“No, you’re right. Gotta…get back,” he grunted still not looking at her. He surged forward for a few steps, but his speed quickly devolved into a limping, shuffle again.

“I’ll scout ahead,” she said, not really sure what else she could do. He nodded, and closed his eyes briefly.

She dashed ahead, making sure to keep Fjord in eye-shot and ear-shot. His breathing and shuffling wasn’t difficult to detect. She worried anything else that lived here could hear it as well. The path inclined slightly, which she took as a good sign. If they didn’t find themselves in the same rooms and hallways they had traversed earlier, at least they’d be above ground. The wizards couldn’t have sent them far. They were just using a spell without a circle or any other kind of aid. She desperately hoped if they couldn’t get back for the battle the others would be okay. At least Jester was with them. She knew Jester liked Caleb and would help him often when she couldn’t.

The path turned, and the cavern opened up before her. There was a small lake, about eighty feet across, it’s surface black and unmoving. The path went around the side. She could hear more distant trickling in the distance. The other side was too far to see in the dark. She jogged back to Fjord, who was still trudging steadily along. “There’s a lake up ahead, maybe we can take a rest?”

He just nodded. She led him forward, around the bend and to the lake’s edge. He sat down heavily and she moved closer to him, to help him unwrap the bandages. He didn’t look, and it was hard to see color in the dark but she could see some of the welts had popped and were oozing some kind of dark liquid. She soaked the bandages in the water for a minute, and then began re-wrapping them around the burns. Fjord hissed in pain, and then sighed heavily as the cool bandages soothed the burns somewhat. Nott jumped when he spoke.

“It was a mistake,” he said.

“What was?”

“Charming you. We had…no right.”

She paused, and then began re-wrapping the bandage. “No, you didn’t,” she agreed.

“I’m sorry.”

“I accept your apology,” she said quietly. Fjord seemed to sigh heavily again, in what seemed like relief.

“I’m also sorry for…saying you ate babies. And…what you went through. I know…a bit about what it’s like not to belong.” She glanced at his face, eyes focusing on the slight bulges where she knew his tusks were growing, but he wasn’t looking at her.

“I suppose you do.” She twirled her fingers together and looked down. “It’s hard to trust you, Fjord. I think you have a lot of secrets.” He saw him glance at her. “But…you’ve _generally_ been a good ally. So…I’ll try harder.”

“I _do_ want to be…your friend,” he started. “And you’re right. There’s things I’m…not ready to talk about. So, I’ll also try harder.” He gave her a small smile.

She nodded and took a step backwards as he pushed himself to his feet. They moved around the edge of the lake together, Fjord shuffling slowly behind her but advancing. The rest had done him well, and he seemed alert if not 100% mobile. His breathing wasn’t as harsh. Nott led the way until she started to see a wall form ahead of her in the dark. A very, very faint glimmer shone through in a streak as long as her hand. She jogged over, eager to inspect the light.

She ran her hands over the stones, feeling how they sat on top of each other as opposed to being one solid surface. It was a collapsed wall of some sort, and there was a glimmer of light coming through a gap in two of the stones. It wasn’t much, but it was hope. She started pulling rocks away from the pile and throwing them behind her.

“I think I see light!” she said. She heard Fjord come up behind her, and then his good arm came into view and started pulling larger rocks down and away. She had climbed somewhat up the incline and was starting to throw rocks down from the top of the pile, when she felt something cold and wet touch the bottom of her foot.

She yelped in surprise as she was pulled down, her chin and chest scraping the rocks. She tried to dig her claws into the rock below her, but they weren’t sharp enough. She was suddenly lifted into the air facing the cave wall above the collapse.

A creature slightly larger than her with eight legs and two _giant_ pincers clung to the wall. The goo attached to her foot was coming from its mouth. She screamed, fumbling for the knives at her waist. She wrapped her hands around the hilt of one right when the first claw ripped through her side.

She screamed as she felt it tear into her, the momentum making her spin in midair. She leaned up slightly at her waist, grunting as she did so, and hacked at the filament holding her up. The knife blade caught in it, and when she tried to pull it out it stuck fast. She huffed, letting go and snatched her crossbow instead. She tried to aim it at the thing’s face, with its many mandibles clacking together but it struck again. It hit her arm and she dropped the crossbow, shrieking.

A bolt of dark fire severed the filament and she fell about ten feet to the floor before the wind was knocked out of her. She gasped, wrapping her arms around her side and feeling the warm, wet and sticky substance that was her blood coating her forearms. She heard the aggressive clacking of the things legs against the rock above her but Fjord’s shadow dashed over her. The blue glow from his falchion as it extended lit up the cave like a torch, and the thing hissed wildly. She climbed to her feet, groping around for her dropped weapon as her eyes adjusted.

Her hands grasped the cold wood and metal of her cross bow just as the thing pounced on Fjord. She rolled out of the way as the two crashed into the floor behind her. There was a spray of black blood and a high-pitched shriek as the falchion tore threw two of its legs. But then its claws came crashing down into Fjord’s injured shoulder and he screamed in pain.

Nott was screaming in rage at the same time. Her first bolt took it right through the side of its head, mandibles flying off as its head was pierced straight through. Her second bolt took it wear its head met its neck. It flailed, screeching and blood flying, before it collapsed on top of Fjord.

She limped forward, holding her side and panting harshly. She grabbed one of the legs of the creature that was still attached, and pulled it off of Fjord.

“Fjord…Fjord…” she whispered. He wasn’t moving.

She leaned over to look at his neck. There was a huge chunk missing from his shoulder, so big she could fit her arm through it. The cloth she had wrapped around it was in tatters. She bit her lip, feeling tears spring to her eyes, as she looked at his face. The lids of his eyes were half closed, his eyes rolled up into the back of his head. She leaned her face over his and could detect only the faintest breath tickling her cheek. “Hold on Fjord, I’m getting help.”

She limped back over to the rock pile, moving faster this time. She kept her wounded arm against her wounded side and began pulling rocks down. She felt her nails break and could feel the slick of her blood against the rocks. She scrambled at the light, too afraid to look back into the dark. Finally, she had created a hole large enough she could squeeze through. She dove into it, seeing the light on the other side. As she wriggled through, she was suddenly free and tumbling to the ground which was a few feet below her. She sat up, looking around frantically.

She recognized this room as one they had all passed through earlier. An alchemist’s lab, which Caleb had already taken many of the books from. Broken vials littered the floor around her, but she got to her feet ignoring the glass. A dim torch was lit on the wall, leading to a doorway that outside was a longer hall. Beyond that, she knew, was the temple the wizards had been in.

She clawed inside of her belt for the piece of string she knew was in there.

She pulled it out, pointing in the direction of the temple. “HELP! Fjord’s dying! We’re in the Alchemist lab! Please respond to this message!”

There was a moment when she didn’t hear anything. Her hands holding the string began to shake, and tears leaked from her eyes. She took a step forward, afraid she would have to run to find them. Fjord didn’t have that kind of time.

And then, a calm reassuring voice sounded in her ears.

_“We’re coming.”_

She collapsed in relief against the wall, Caleb’s words still echoing in her ears.

Beau burst into the room, seeing her collapsed on the floor and rushing over to her. “Oh my god, Nott,” she breathed as her hands pressed over Nott’s side. “Where’s Fjord?”

Jester and Caleb were both there a moment later, and she hissed in pain as the monk’s hands covered her side. She shook her head as Jester reached down to heal her. “Fjord’s worse. He’s in there…” she looked towards the crumbling wall and hole she crawled out of.

Beau lept to her feet, not hesitating. “Molly, help me,” she shouted as he entered the room. They began pulling rocks out of the wall frantically. Caleb remained kneeling in front of her, his hands had replaced Beau’s. He looked very scared.

“I’ll be alright, Caleb,” she tried to reassure him. He smiled back.

She watched as Beau dove into the larger hole they’d made and shouted something back. Molly and Jester kept tearing rocks away, as Beau’s muffled voice seemed to be growing even more frantic. Jester started crawling into the hole.

Nott leaned her head back on the wall. She could feel Caleb looking at the tears streaming down her cheeks. “I’ve said some terrible things to him,” she whispered.

“Nott, we’ve all not been kind to each other from time to time. But we are growing. That is part of friendship. He has not always been sensitive to you.”

“I feel like, I don’t know anything about him. And now he’s going to die.” She glanced over and Molly had made a hole wide enough for him to climb through, and disappeared into the cavern.

“Don’t say that,” Caleb whispered. “Even…even if something happens, you tried. You didn’t let anyone down.”

She didn’t reply.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Caleb keeping his hand over her side and once in a while brushing a tear from her cheek with his finger. They heard shuffling, and Molly’s voice. “We’re coming out!”

Molly came first, holding one of Fjord’s legs followed by Beau with the other one. Nott held her breath until Fjord’s face came into view. Jester was carrying him under the shoulders and when she came out of the cavern she beamed wildly. “He’s going to be okay!”

Nott sagged forward in relief, Caleb catching her.

The others put Fjord on the floor away from the broken glass, and she could already see the hole in his shoulder had closed up and many of the welts on his arm had disappeared. Jester stood up straight after she put him down and wiped her arm on her forehead. “Now,” she smiled. “Let’s see if we can’t get you up and about, huh?” she smiled at Nott.

* * *

 

They left the temple a short time later, Jester merrily holding the severed heads of the wizards in a macabre display. Caleb already had his head in a book he had found. Fjord and Nott were both back on their feet, though Fjord’s neck and arm was still covered in an angry red stripe, but he looked much better. Nott had her own faint pink scar on her side and arm. As they walked, Fjord put on a small burst of speed to catch up with her. She saw him wince slightly.

“Nott, you saved me today.”

She waved. “You saved me like three times, so don’t even worry about it.”

“No, that’s not…what I mean to say was thank-you. And I’m glad you have my back.”

She looked up at him and gave him a small smile. “Yeah…me too.”

She kind of liked the pleasant feeling of warmth that spread over her. It was something she could get used to.

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, I just discovered one of the hurt-comfort tumblr accounts and I've never felt SO CALLED OUT in my LIFE than I did reading those posts. Anyway, if you want to hit me up and talk more about the H/C community CALL-OUTS, I'm redtigress dot tumblr dot com. I'd really appreciate if you left a comment here too, and thank you in advance for any kudos you feel like bestowing! Thanks for reading!


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